Marked by Dark
by absque amor
Summary: Harry never expected to be friends with Blaise Zabini. He never expected to be in the middle of a fight between Blaise and Draco. He never expected Draco and Blaise to have a lovers' quarl, and, most of all - Harry NEVER expected how involved he'd become.
1. Screams of Dreams

**A/N: I **_**know**_** that I aught to be working on Tango Tangle, but this idea stormed into my brain and I just **_**had **_**to write. I guess I'm just really partial to love tangles between Harry, Draco, Blaise and Ginny. Although, this is one is much different than Tango Tangle and even **_**I **_**don't know who with end up with whom.**

**Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.**

_Harry's eyes narrowed at Draco Malfoy as he raised his wand, held in a hand he realized, distantly, was much too pale and slender to be his own. With hatred and annoyance and anger all burning fervently in his heart he hissed, "_Crucio_!" in a voice he also realized was much too high to be his own. _

_He was distracted from his revelations by Draco's form crumpling to the ground before him. The young blond cried out in anguish as he writhed on the floor trying desperately to both escape the severe pain that wracked his body and attempt to ease it. Both of his attempts proved futile and the pain was only relinquished by the voice that came from Harry but was not Harry's calmly murmuring the counter-curse._

_For several long minute Draco lay panting on the ground. Harry felt a sneer tug at his lips as he watched the pathetic excuse for a boy._

_Finally, Draco began to slowly rise – getting first onto his hand and knees before slowly standing. He did not look at Harry as he rose, choosing instead to keep his eyes trained resolutely on the ground. He straightened at last, swayed briefly, and caught himself. His eyes rose, but did not meet Harry's gaze._

_Draco said nothing, remaining silent, and Harry indulged momentarily the elation he felt knowing how much power he had over the sad creature._

"_Now then," Harry said in his hiss of a voice, "you _will_ be receiving the most noted honor of wearing my mark on you arm. Come here, now, _boy_ and I shall bestow it upon you."_

"_No."_

_Harry paused, knowing he couldn't _possibly _have heard the insolent little child speak _that word_ to him _again_. He decided to take mercy on the little creature and pretend he hadn't spoken at all._

"_Come. Here."_

"_I…" Draco paused to lick his lips. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath before looking directly into Harry's eyes and stating firmly, "I. Will. _Not._"_

_The anger flared in Harry one more, burning in the pit of his stomach. He hesitated only a moment._

"CRUCIO!"

"_AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

_Harry felt a sweet satisfaction at watching Draco's pain. Slowly, Harry descended the steps before him to where the child lay writhing. As he reached Draco's shuttering body, he lifted the curse and stamped hard on Draco's left arm. A scream of pure agony escaped Draco's lips and he crumpled toward his arm before falling back against the floor feebly._

_Harry lifts his foot and Draco immediately moved to cradle it to his chest._

"_Give me your arm."_

"_Nnn-…" Draco began, his voice giving out to a gasp of pain. He couldn't deny Harry anymore; he had no strength left to do so._

"_You _will_ give me you arm," Harry informed Draco. "Sooner or later, you will submit to me. Do so now and you will suffer less." Draco said nothing, but continued to hold his arm to his chest in silence. "I can harm you in so many ways Malfoy; not only with the Curious, but with your deepest darkest secrets." _

_To prove his point, Harry pointed his wand at Draco once more and flashes of memories whizzed through the front of both of their minds. Draco gasped again as the last of them ended. Harry leered at Draco as he said, "I can hurt you in so many ways, Malfoy, and I don't even have to touch _you_."_

_Harry watched gleefully as fear and recognition flashed across Draco's steel-gray eyes._

"_You disgust me, Malfoy," Harry spat, sneering as he moved away from Draco – as though he were contagious. "You and that Zabini child both are such disgustingly filthy little creatures. I could kill either of you with out qualm. I suggest you cease these little games you are playing, Malfoy. Give me your arm."_

_Draco turned his head away from Harry, but not before the later saw the tinge of red on the young blonde's cheek. Draco's whole body shook for a long time before he slowly raised his arm to Harry. Snatching at the wrist offered to him, Harry jerked Draco up and toward him. A victorious gleam shone brightly in Harry's strangely red eyes as he lowered the tip of his want to Draco's forearm and hissed triumphantly, "_Morsmorde!"

Harry snapped away with a gasp, his scar burning as furiously as ever. He looked about him as he reached up to tentatively touch the old wound, trying to discern where he was and what was happening to him.

He sat up in his four-poster realizing he was at Hogwarts, and as he blinked his eyes furiously he realized that he was awake and that he had been dreaming. He was not in a dark room with Draco Malfoy. He was in his dormitory with a sound asleep Ron nearby. He looked down at his hands to reassure himself they were his, large and slightly tanned from Quidditch. He was a tired, growing sixteen year old; not a malicious grown man. He was Harry, not Voldemort.

The two realities separated and, as they did, Harry realized the gravity of the situation. Immediately, Harry played the dream over in his head, trying to remember it all. The detailed had already begun to slip away, however, and all he could remember was that Draco was a Death Eater. He had tried to fight it, but that was who he was now.

Harry laid back in bed as he considered this in his mind. He tried to imagine how Voldemort would try to use Draco against him, but failed. Finally, he gave up trying to know what a demented shadow of a man was plotting and fell asleep.

**A/N: Alright! First chapter done! This is going to be so freaking exciting! You all, along with myself, will have to wait until I post the next chapter of Tango Tangle to find out what will happen next! Somehow, though, I think that I might be more motivated to write that story with this one sitting patiently on the edge of my mind.**


	2. Term Resumes

1**A/N: I lied. This story is **_**very**_** impatient to be written. It keeps gnawing at the edge of my mind, demanding my attention. It makes it very difficult to keep my attention on Tango Tangle at all. Aaaaaaaah well.**

**Disclaimer: Nope.**

"Wake up, Harry! It's Christmas!"

Harry rose to this, still slightly dazed. The dream he'd been having slipped from his mind like smoke through fingers. All he could remember was the dream that had woken him in the middle of the night, but barely.

He knew it had involved Malfoy. Harry had been so _angry_ at him. _So_ angry, in fact, that he'd risen his wand against Malfoy in pale, slight fingers that couldn't have been his own.

It was then that Harry remembered. Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater.

"Harry?"

Snapping awake at the sound of his name, Harry pulled his curtains aside. The mound of presents awaiting him at the end of his bed were enough to push the thought of Malfoy out of his mind. At least temporarily, but with almost everyone out of the castle for break – including Malfoy – it wasn't long before Harry had all but forgotten the dream.

Harry slowly made his way down the steps from the boys' dormitory to the common room, rubbing his eyes as he went. Still half asleep, he stumbled into the common room to find several other students milling about in various stages of wakefulness. Harry stood blinking for a few moments before he remembered that term was starting back up.

_I was getting used to the empty common room,_ Harry thought as he made he way to the portrait hole. _It was actually kind of nice_.

Harry made his way down the hall sleepily. He paid no attention to the portrait hole swinging open almost immediately after him until delicate fingers slipped into the crook of his arm. He looked down to see Ginny smiling up at him.

"Morning Harry," she said cheerfully.

"Morning Gin," he replied with a grin. They walked together in a comfortable silence to the Great Hall for breakfast and took seats next to one another at the Gryffindor table. They were soon joined by Hermione and then Ron who sat together opposite them. Ron silently began to pile food onto his plate without looking at the couple sitting directly across from him.

Ginny and Harry and gotten together over the break right after Christmas and Ron still wasn't quite over it. He wasn't openly opposing it anymore, which was a good sign in Harry's opinion. Still, it meant that most meals were rather tense affairs.

Obviously trying to relieve some of the tension in the air about them, Hermione turned to look up and down the table. With excessive, and rather forced, cheerfulness, she stated, "Wow! It's amazing to see how many students there are here after the holiday, isn't it."

"Yeah," Harry agreed looking about the room. "It-..." Harry suddenly caught sight of Malfoy sitting down at the Slytherin table and paused. His dream rushed back to the forefront of his mind and he said, "That's right, I'd forgotten..."

"How many students there are here," Ginny asked frowning at him.

Harry shook his head slowly, still distracted. After a moment her question finally reached him and he continued, "No...that Malfoy's a Death Eater."

There were collective gasps and exclamations of astonishment from his three friends, drawing Harry's attention back to them. He remembered, then, that he had yet to tell them about the dream, having forgotten about it. Quickly, he filled them in and their astonishment grew.

Hermione and Ginny shared a look. Harry caught them and frowned at Ginny. It was Hermione who answered his unspoken question, however.

"Harry...maybe you should tell Dumbledore about this," she suggested tentatively.

"No way," Harry said shaking his head. "I'm not _supposed_ to be having these dreams, remember. Besides, it's not like Draco can really _do_ anything here."

"Except kill you," Ron muttered darkly.

Harry scoffed saying, "As if." He looked around at his friends and saw they weren't convinced by his confidence.

"Look," Harry began as he started filling his plate nonchalantly, "I know that I lucked out of most my battles with Voldemort, but I'm sure I could manage _Malfoy_." When they continued to look concerned he added, "Besides, neither Voldemort _or_ Malfoy would dare doing anything at Hogwarts where Dumbledore can see what's going on. Malfoy wouldn't have the guts, and Voldemort's not that stupid."

"I don't know, Harry," Hermione said slowly. "He's done it before. What's to stop him now?"

"I think Harry's right," Ron put in grudgingly. "Malfoy's too much of a coward to do anything."

"Yeah, but who do you think he's more scared of," Ginny added, "Dumbledore or Voldemort."

In the silence that followed this statement they each considered the validity of it. It was rather obvious who Draco Malfoy would be more scared of, but none of them seemed willing to address the fact.

"I'll deal with it," Harry said finally. Stabbing his fork into a bit of sausage. "I can't go running to Dumbledore for _everything_, after all. I can manage Malfoy."

More silence followed this statement which Harry chose to ignore as being uncertain. They quietly finished their meals as the post arrived and schedules were handed out. When breakfast ended they parted in silence, Harry and Ginny merely hugging as a means of farewell. Ron slipped back into his sullen mood and walked apart from Hermione and Harry as they made their way to potions.

It was shaping up to be a really poor day, Harry decided as they queued up from potions class.

He would soon be proven very right.

**A/N: Muahaha! I love cliff hangers. They are **_**so**_** much fun! Oh, **_**and **_**to tantalize you all **_**more,**_ **I think I should inform you that I've already written the first kiss scene. I won't tell you who it's between, but I promise it will be **_**delicious**_**. Now...**

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**Lilia0: Yay, I'm glad you like it! The wait is over, but it shall resume! Thank you for adding my story to your favorites _and_ your alerts, by the way.**

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	3. Worst Day Just Begun

**A/N: SO, I decided to extend the cliff hanger even **_**more**_** by starting this chapter off in Blaise's point of view. I know, I'm so very mean, but you know you all **_**love **_**it. Secretly. Subconsciously, at the very least.**

**Disclaimer: It's all **_**mine**_**! ~Sigh~ I wish I could say that honestly.**

Draco had arrived back at Hogwarts late the previous night, but, for some reason, he seemed to be avoiding Blaise. Something that concerned the raven-haired Slytherin deeply.

He hadn't expected him to arrive so late. When he still wasn't there at nearly midnight, Blaise had gone to bed figuring Draco would wake him when he arrive. He had been wrong.

Blaise woke in the morning to find Draco already up and gone. Confused but unconcerned, Blaise slipped into his clothes and made his way to breakfast. He decided on his way that Draco must have been too exhausted to wake him last night and had simply decided not to disturb him this morning.

When Blaise got to the Great Hall and found Draco completely surrounded by other Slytherins from their year, however, he began to worry. Draco _always_ saved a seat for him, and Blaise always saved one for Draco.

Disconcerted, Blaise focused on his breakfast deciding it didn't matter. He would just catch up to Draco on their way to potions. They would sit together, like always, and everything would go back to normal.

But Draco left the Great Hall so stealthily that it was quite some time before Blaise even noticed. Pushing his plate away, he quickly left as well and hurried to catch the blond before class began.

Finally, he found Draco sitting against the lower-lip of a column looking thoughtful. Pausing only briefly, Blaise stepped forward into sight, catching Draco's attention. Blaise grinned at him slyly for a moment, but his smile slipped when Draco continued to gaze at him with bored nonchalance. Draco never looked at him like that.

Frowning, Blaise decided to get right down to the heart of the matter. Locking eyes with Draco he asked, "Why have you been avoiding me, Draco?"

"Who said I was," Draco said with such coldness it sent a rather unpleasant shiver down Blaise's spine. It was quite the opposite of what he was used to from Draco.

"Me," Blaise stated with confident coolness. "Just now, in fact. Don't pretend you aren't, Draco. I'm not stupid. Just tell me _why_."

Draco shrugged looking away from Blaise to pick at his nails. "I have more important things on my mind now," he stated simply.

It was like a slap in the face.

Blaise was still with shock, completely unable to think of anything to say in return. It was rather a miracle that his mouth didn't fall open in surprise and speechlessness. It was the first time in his life that he found he didn't have anything witty to throw back in someone's face.

It was at that moment that the other students decided to show up and, in a way, Blaise felt saved. In another way, he felt completely exposed and shamed. He could do nothing more than silently join the line forming on the left with Slytherins.

The door to the class room swung open, revealing a glowering Snape. Silence fell upon the entire corridor and the students on both sides quietly filed into the room and found seats. Harry felt his heart sink as Hermione and Ron took a seat next to one another leaving him the odd man out. Harry stopped short and paused, hurt, before looking around him for an empty seat. The only one left by then was at the very back of the room in the middle row. There was no one else there.

_Great_, Harry thought as he made his way to the desk. _I get to sit _alone_. How bloody fan_tastic!

Harry held in a sigh as he dropped his bag heavily onto the desk and took the seat closer to the Gryffindor side of the room. He moved his bag from the table to set next to him on the floor and leaned forward onto the desk, resting his chin in his palm.

He stewed in silence for a moment before a bag slammed onto the table beside him. He saw it peripherally and jumped a bit at the noise, straightening. He watched the chair beside his being pulled back and none other than Blaise Zabini slip into it. Harry stared at him in shock as Blaise, too, placed his bag next to him in the aisle closer to the other Slytherins.

Zabini ignored Harry as he scooted his chair in one swift movement closer to the table. Harry opened his mouth to ask Zabini what the _hell_ he was doing sitting next to him, but he didn't get to make a sound before he was cut off.

"Not. A. _Word, _Potter," Zabini hissed, gripping the edge of the table and looking studiously at he front of the room.

Harry was about to say _several_ words, regardless of the warning, when the door slammed shut and Snape swept past them with a drawl of, "Silence." Annoyed, Harry turned to the front of the room and decided to ignore the Slytherin sitting directly beside him.

He barely heard a word of what Snape said. It was mostly the same as any other class, anyway.

"Today you will be brewing a blah-di blah-di blah potion. The properties of which are blah-di blah-di blah. You will find the directions on the board and all necessary ingredients in the cabinet. You may blah, blah, blah."

"Let's just get this out of the way," Zabini suggested through his teeth, jarring Harry back to reality. "Then we can go back to completely ignoring one another's existence."

"Fine by me," Harry agreed tersely as turned his attention to the first instruction on the board. "Looks like we'll be needing-"

"Got it," Zabini stated, cutting him off as he dumped all the ingredients onto the table. "Just chop these up into the smallest bits you can. By the time you're done we should be at that step."

"Which is?" Harry asked even as he scanned the list of twelve directions for it.

"Eleven," Zabini said shortly and he placed the roots he wanted Harry to chop in front of him resolutely.

Harry bristled at this, but said nothing as he set about cutting up the roots. If Zabini wanted to do most the work, that was fine by _him._

Harry soon discovered that working with Zabini, even as silently as they were, was unbearable. The worst part about it was that Harry wasn't _quite_ finished chopping the roots by the time they reached step eleven. It was Zabini's fault for making him so angry, he decided. His hands had been shaking so much with repressed rage that he had difficulty making precise cuts.

As a further insult, Zabini had sighed in exasperation and snatched the remaining root from him, chopping it up in seconds. Really, it was just unfair of Zabini to leave the chopping to Harry when he had the skills of a master chef.

The grade Harry got for the day was the final touch to the worst potions class he'd ever had. Snape had been watching them, saw how much work Zabini had actually done, and given Harry one of the lowest grade's possible. The only thing that had saved him, Snape informed Harry rather loudly before the _entire_ class, was the impeccable work _Mr. Zabini_ had done on _their_ potion.

"I suppose you should be congratulated for knowing when to stay out of the way, _Mr. _Potter," Snape added, sneering. "I shudder to think what the end result would have been if you'd done _your fair share_ rather than let Mr. _Zabini _carry your _dead weight_."

Harry had stood before him, fuming, as he waited to be released from class. Thanks to_ Blaise Zabini_, they had finished early. He was already gone by now, leaving Harry behind to suffer Snape's ridicule. After an eternity, Snape dismissed him with, "You may go."

Harry rushed down the aisle to where he'd sat with Blaise and snatched up his bag before rushing out of the class toward his next class. Glancing his list he saw it was with being held with the Slytherin house as well.

_Great_, Harry grumbled mentally. _Just bloody _great.

**A/N: So...Harry's day isn't going so well, but, if you think about it, neither is Blaise's. On the other hand, though, Blaise at least got to put Harry through hell in Potions class. Maybe I'll...but I guess I shouldn't say that here. Wouldn't want to reveal the plot, now would I?**

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	4. Worst Day Continued

**A/N: It took me forever to decide how I wanted to do this chapter, but I think I've finally figured it out. I don't know what it is about these stories of late, but they just don't seem to want to cooperate. Hm...oh well.**

**Disclaimer: I only own myself.**

Defense Against the Dark went about as well for Blaise as Potions had gone for Harry. They had been paired with one another for a second time that day, but this time it was Harry who had the upper hand. He mastered the spells set to them expertly while Blaise struggled. By the end of the class Blaise was about ready to kill him.

"I may not be very well practiced at defensive magic," he informed Harry, "but the dark magic you think you're so good at deflecting is another matter. You would do well to remember that, _Potter._"

Harry's only response was to smirk at the infuriated Slytherin. Blaise resisted the urge to curse him then and there by some miracle and stormed from the class room.

The rest of the day was not much better. Since the other houses both had all their students at class, Blaise was the odd man out. He would have found this a nice reprieve, if it weren't for the almost pitying look Pansy was giving him and the amused looks the other Slytherins were throwing at him over their shoulders.

In the end, Blaise resorted to thinking about the conversation he'd had with Draco that morning. It succeeded in depressing him enough to weigh against the urge to get violent.

It was in Charms class, while Blaise was waiting for the school day to end, that he came to a sudden realization. All Draco had told him was that he had something else on his mind. Maybe it was just something that he needed to be away from Blaise to think about.

_If I give him some space until after dinner,_ Blaise thought. _Maybe...just **maybe**..._

Draco continued to avoid Blaise all through dinner. When they returned to the Slytherin common room, however, Blaise pulled him aside.

"I need to talk to you."

Draco eyed him momentarily before nodding his head and allowing himself to be led to the unoccupied boys' dormitory. Blaise closed the door behind them, locking it with a spell unknown by most students in their year.

When Blaise turned to Draco, he was standing with his arms crossed looking rather annoyed and impatient. "What," Draco asked harshly.

"That's what I would like to know," Blaise snapped back. "_What_ is going on with you? Why are you avoiding me? Is there just something on your mind you don't want me distracting you from? _What_?"

Draco sighed heavily and with much exasperation. His body relaxed and he reached up to run his fingers through his blonde hair.

"Blaise...I really don't have time for this," Draco informed him flatly. "There isn't anything on my mind. I'm just...I'm done. It's over."

Blaise stared at Draco, his face a blank slate. Inside, however, shock was rolling through him in waves. It was the second time that day he felt as though he'd been stuck. He felt winded, as though someone had punched him right in the stomach.

Draco took the chance to push past Blaise, unlocking the door with a flick of his wand and a mental utterance. He paused before closing the door, however, and murmured, "I'm sorry."

Blaise whipped around and slammed his fist against the wooden door Draco had just pulled closed. The shock was quickly being replaced with rage. Blaise felt his kneed weaken beneath him, and he only just managed to catch himself before he fell to the ground.

_I have nothing left,_ the words rushed through Blaise's mind wildly, consuming him. _I have absolutely nothing left. With out Draco, I have nothing – am nothing. He's all I have. I can't trust any of the other vipers in this snake pit. I'm alone._

A scream built up in Blaise and tore from his throat in furry. He pounded his fist against the door again, but it did little to alleviate his pain.

_I'm alone._

_**...**  
_

Draco slipped out of the Slytherin common room and made his way for the Entrance Hall. Making sure no one was around to see him first, Draco slipped from the castle. He headed directly toward the lake, making his way around it to a gathering of rocks. Draco climbed up to the highest one, snatching up smaller rocks on his way.

Reaching the top of the rock clustering, Draco turn to face the lake's glittering surface. With a huff, he hurled one the rocks out across the lake. It skipped on the surface of the water three times before finally sinking.

Draco frowned and tossed another. It skipped four times and sank. Three more rocks went the same way as the first two, each sinking after three or four skips but no more. Finally, Draco hurled the last rock, not even trying any more. It sank into the lake with a loud plunk, not skipping once.

Draco huffed again as he sat down on the top of the rock he'd been standing on and stared out across the lake. The sun was setting quickly and had nearly disappeared beyond the nearby mountains. The sky near the horizon was on fire, but the lake only glimmered dimly now. Draco drew his knees up and crossed his legs, resting his elbows on his knees and crossing his arms as well.

A sigh escaped Draco then, not one of exasperation as he'd loosed for Blaise earlier, however. This one was more tender that that. It was a sigh of resignation, and it was quickly carried away on the wind to disperse across the lake.

Draco allowed his head to fall forward, resting it on his arms as he tried to push all thoughts from his head. He didn't want to think about Blaise. Didn't want to see, once more, the look on Blaise's face as he shut him out permanently. Didn't want to feel the loneliness that, even now, was seeping into his bones and weighing them down.

His legs fell away so that he was sitting cross-legged with his hands resting on his thighs. He turned his left arm, exposing his forearm. Pulling up the sleeve, Draco revealed to the night air the dark mark which had been hexed onto his skin.

Draco stared at it, feeling bile and resentment boiling up within him. Fuming, he shoved the sleeve back up his arm and looked away, wishing he could make the mark disappear that easily.

He felt the emotions roiling about within him begin to change from anger to sadness and from frustration to regret. Silent tears fell fell from his eyes, streaking down his cheeks. Immediately he reached up and wiped them away furtively.

After all, Death Eaters didn't cry, and neither did Malfoys. _And the two are practically synonymous, now_, Draco found himself thinking.

A derisive snort escaped him at the thought.

**A/N: Phew, Draco Malfoy to the rescue! I got done writing the bit with Blaise, and I was like, "Shoot! What do I do now." If it weren't for Draco popping up in my brain at that moment, the rest of this chapter would've been pretty darn filler-like.**

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